Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ:KELYA) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 11, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Peter Quigley - President and Chief Executive Officer

Olivier Thirot - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Joe Gomes - Noble Capital

Kartik Mehta - Northcoast Research

Kevin Steinke - Barrington Research

Mitra Ramgopal - Sidoti

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Kelly Services First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All parties will be on listen-only until the question-and-answer portion of the presentation. Today's call is being recorded at the request of Kelly Services. If anyone has any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Our first quarter webcast presentation is also available on Kelly's website for this morning's call.

I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host, Mr. Peter Quigley, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Peter Quigley

Thank you, Rich. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Kelly's first quarter conference call.

With me today is Olivier Thirot, our Chief Financial Officer, who will walk you through our safe harbor language, which can be found in our presentation materials.

Olivier Thirot

Thank you, Peter, and good morning, everyone.

As a reminder, any comments made during this call, including the Q&A, may include forward-looking statements about our expectations for future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those suggested by our comments, and we have no obligation to update the statements made on this call. Please refer to our SEC filings for a description of the risk factors that could influence the company's actual future performance.

In addition, during the call, certain data will be discussed on a reported and on an adjusted basis. Discussion of items on an adjusted basis are non-GAAP financial measures designed to give insight into certain trends in our operations. References to organic growth in our discussion today exclude the results of our 2022 acquisitions of PTS and RocketPower, as well as the 2022 sale of our Russian operations.

Finally, the slide deck that we are using on today's call is available on our website.

Now, back to you, Peter.

Peter Quigley

Thank you, Olivier. I'll begin by sharing some brief thoughts on the broader context for Kelly's first quarter results.

For the most part, the macroeconomic and labor market headwinds that existed in the fourth quarter continued in the first quarter, and those headwinds are widely reported and well understood. Overall, employers are being more deliberate about their talent strategy decisions. And as in all challenging times, some industries are showing more resiliency than others. Likewise, Kelly specialty solutions, where we have intentionally focused our growth strategy proved more resilient than the others.